London Fire Brigade (2)

Susan Hall: How will you monitor the LFB culture review and ensure that its recommendations are delivered? Clearly there have been issues with this in the past.

The Mayor: Work on London Fire Brigade’s independent review into its culture is progressing with the appointment of its chair, Nazir Afzal OBE. LFB anticipates receiving the Chair’s recommendations in the autumn of 2022 and will put in place robust processes to implement actions from the review. I and my Deputy Mayor for Fire and Resilience regularly discuss the independent review in meetings with the Commissioner and we will monitor progress against the recommendations as they are delivered.

London Fire Brigade (4)

Susan Hall: Can you set out what measures are in place to ensure that the Chair of the LFB Culture review, Nazir Afzal OBE, delivers realistic, achievable recommendations in a timely way?

The Mayor: As part of the establishment of the Independent Review into Culture at London Fire Brigade (LFB), a set of operating protocols were put forward to provide a structure for LFB and the Chair of the Review to work together. LFB will seek the Chair’s feedback on those protocols and put in place processes to ensure a report is delivered within the timescales agreed. The subject, content and ambition of the recommendations is the sole purview of the Chair.

The LFB and Flooding Outreach

Hina Bokhari: What plans does the LFB have to undertake more flooding outreach with businesses and schools?

The Mayor: London Fire Brigade (LFB) has updated its website to incorporate topics around flooding including: ‘Flood Planning’; ‘What to do if a flood is predicted in your area’; ‘What to do if your home is flooding’; and ‘What to do in the aftermath of a flood’. This information will be targeted at businesses in London through a communications campaign in 2022 and through the fire safety inspection process. Water safety advice is already provided as part of the LFB youth engagement programmes, such as Safety First, in secondary schools. LFB is also working on additional educational packages for primary schools to offer in the New Year, these packages will incorporate age-appropriate advice around flooding.

Support for firefighters

Anne Clarke: What support and advice is offered to firefighters to cope with the job?

The Mayor: At London Fire Brigade (LFB) Trainee Firefighter Welcome Days, all individuals are informed of the mental health and emotional impacts of working in an emergency service and how to access support. During their training programme trainee fire fightersregularly engage with training staffand, following posting to a fire station, is allocated a mentor. Trainees can also access support from someone outside their watch,andcan be matched witha suitably upskilledfirefighter “buddy”from a diverse pool of firefighterswho will be a safe point of contact to ask questions and signpost to other support services if required. During the course oftheir employment, firefighters have access to a wide range ofwellbeing support. This includes access to LFB’s staff equality support groups andtrade unions,access toLFB’s in-house wellbeing portal, and LFBWellWorks, which provides specific advice and resources for staff working within an emergency service. Staff also have access toLFB’sdedicatedCounselling and Trauma Service.

Flood Response Capability (10)

Anne Clarke: The London Safety Plan says, “During the lifetime of the London Safety Plan, further work will be undertaken to establish how trained staff could assist communities with the challenge of recovery as well as provide advice to businesses, community groups and residents on how to protect themselves from the worst impacts of flooding”. What work has been undertaken and what have been the results?

The Mayor: London Fire Brigade (LFB) has updated its website to incorporate topics around flooding and signpost residents to available resources. These topics are ‘Flood Planning’, ‘What to do if a flood is predicted in your area’, ‘What to do if your home is flooding’ and ‘What to do in the aftermath of a flood’. This information is also going to be targeted at businesses in London through a communications campaign in 2022 and through the Fire Safety inspection process. LFB is represented on a number of forums such as the Thames Water Safety Partnership and works closely with partners to raise awareness of water safety issues. Community assistance has also been delivered through Borough Resilience Forum (BRF), multi-agency flood plans and deployment of resources to numerous incidents. Further work needs to be undertaken to define ‘trained staff’ and how this links into local BRF approach to recovery after a flood.

Crypto Currency Fraud

Caroline Pidgeon: Data from Action Fraud has revealed that £146,222,332 has been lost to cryptocurrency fraud since the beginning of this year. This is almost a third more than was lost throughout the whole of 2020. How are you working with the Met and others to tackle and prevent fraud relating to crypto currency in London?

The Mayor: Unlike many other offences, cyber-enabled crime does not have a physical footprint, and as such any strategic response is best driven at a national level. It is Action Fraud, within the City of London Police, that is the National policing lead for fraud and cyber enabled crime. Action Fraud also sits alongside the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau that receives millions of reports of fraud and cybercrime, which is used to identify serial offenders, organised crime groups and find emerging crime types.
Unfortunately, businesses and members of the public have fallen victim to scams associated with a growing number of cryptocurrencies, which is why I want toensurethe MPSeffectively responds tothese crimes. Thisincludes a £187 million investment in transforming MPS technologies,providing the resources to developMPScapabilities for dealing with serious and organised crime, fraud and cybercrime. The MPS Economic Crime Command (ECC) has over 300 officers dedicated to investigating fraud & economic crime offences such as cryptocurrencies, with several specialist officers trained in tackling crypto currency scams. The ECC is also working closely with stakeholders in the private sector to access bespoke capabilities for a range of cyber enabled crime types. As a result, the ECC have taken enforcement action against individuals engaged in crypto-enabled offences, resulting in the restraint of crypto-assets totaling more than £100m.
I have also committed in my draft Police and Crime Plan to protect people and businesses from cyber-crime and fraud. One example of this is the MPS working closely in close partnership with the Police Digital Security Centre, soon to be the Regional Cyber Resilience Centre, to help protect and prepare SMEs in London against cyber-crime. MOPAC and my Chief Digital Officer are closely aligned to this work. In addition, the MPS Little Media Series, is a collection of online and print media booklets designed to raise awareness and prevent people becoming victims of the most common types of fraud and cybercrime, including cryptocurrency scams.